£20,000 Reward for Brazen Burglary Lead

Housebuilder Weston Homes are offering a £20,000 reward for information after a mass daylight burglary happened at its site in Southend.

The thieves made off with £250,000 worth of goods, including plant machinery, quartz worktops, wood flooring, granite paving and glass.

Weston Homes have decided to take the case into their own hands after Essex Police’s slow response to the break-in. The robbery occurred over the weekend of the 8th-9th July, and reported upon its discovery on the 10th July. However, Police were unable to attend the scene until the 21st July- nearly 2 weeks after the theft.

Michael Alden, commercial director at Weston Homes, said: “This audacious robbery will eventually end up costing our company up to three quarters of a million pounds to a million pounds in losses once building delays, material reordering, time and legal costs are taken into account. We are deeply disappointed in the slow police response and their lack of resourcing to assist, hence we have decided to offer a reward to members of the general public, and also publicise the robbery via a video and social media.”

Details of the robbers are as follows:

1st Man- White, slim build with shaven dark hair, wearing a hi-vis vest marked ‘Security’ over a white short sleeved shirt and dark trousers. He wore boots on Saturday, and dirty white trainers on the Sunday.

2nd man- White, heavily built with dark cropped hair. He wore different clothes on both days. He has a large tattoo covering his left shoulder and another tattoo on the inside of his right arm.

3rd man- Only appeared on the Sunday to steal a forklift truck. White, medium height, wearing black shorts ad t-shirt and black trainers, with a green baseball cap.

The vehicles involved were:

MAN 7.5t lorry MX06 NZJ

Blue and red Bolvo 26t lorry, AO02 NMA

White Ford Transit, UK04 REP

The £20,000 reward is for “any information or anonymous tip-offs on the identity of the various suspects that leads to the stolen materials being recovered”.

If you have any information, you can email: securityhotline@weston-homes.com or call 01279 874 193.